On dream travelers

James Wynn · 12 Feb 2011, 02:55 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:55:28 -0600
Subject: (urth) On dream travelers
In-Reply-To: <004901cbca5d$c5f18460$e8d14a0c@rclackey>
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	<004901cbca5d$c5f18460$e8d14a0c@rclackey>
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> Roy-
> Yes, the bodies of dream travelers have weight and seem to otherwise behave
> as if they were real, but they are not real. Remember the part about no
> digestive tracts. Rigoglio's spirit-travel body received a mortal wound on
> Urth, but there was not a mark on his real body back on Blue. I dare say an
> autopsy of Rigoglio's spirit body would have revealed anomalies as glaring
> as the lack of a digestive tract, to say the least, if that body even
> continued to exist after Silkhorn left.

Let's say rather that they are different. Not real implies that they are 
merely virtual. They don't need to eat but they DO bleed. The Rajan is 
attacked by inhumi after his blood and he remarked that his hands were 
cut from his climb. If an astral body can be harmed, it implies that 
they have something in them that can be harmed. They have flesh that can 
be damaged by objects.

> Roy-
> Not even from the perspective of other people are spirit travelers entirely
> human; humans can't walk through locked metal doors like Jahlee did in the
> Matachin tower, as I cited, and both Merryn and Severian saw her do it.

That is irrelevant. Astral bodies have powers that corporal bodies do 
not, that is true. However, astral bodies can be touched. There is no 
indication that people touching them sensed something wrong.

> Roy-
> What has any of that to do with what I wrote? I wrote
>> When Quetzal died on Horn's lander his body reverted to its natural inhumi
>> shape, the reptilian horror that caused Moorgrass and Nettle to scream
>> (EXODUS, 381). This demonstrates that Quetzal did not get to the LSW by way
>> of spirit travel; his body was his real body, not a spirit-travel body.
> [...]
> By no stretch was Quetzal's body that of a spirit traveler. Had it been, he
> would have had no need of the makeup. He would have been as human as Juganu
> or Jahlee.

Don't get defensive. I certainly never claimed that Quetzal was a spirit 
traveler. Did you think I did? I was only clarifying that "reverted" was 
an /apparent/ transformation.

u+16b9

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